


A Collection of Langst One-Shots

by leighcat



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Homesick Lance (Voltron), Hurt/Comfort, Langst, Light Angst, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Panic Attacks, Season/Series 04 Spoilers, Team as Family, light fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-14
Updated: 2018-09-24
Packaged: 2018-12-29 20:14:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12092589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leighcat/pseuds/leighcat
Summary: Just another collection of Langst one-shots where I project on to and hurt my smol son.





	1. Validate Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team returns from a high-stress mission, and they're all wound up. Lance feels like his team is ignoring his hard work, so he calls them out. Angst and light fluff ensues.
> 
> Based off a [prompt](https://genderfluid-alien.tumblr.com/post/159123509200/oboy-have-some-shitty-langst-prompts-that-are) by [genderfluid-alien](https://genderfluid-alien.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr

They were all grateful to be back alive, in one piece. The mission had been stressful, to say the least, and they had barely pulled through. But they were there, together, and that’s what mattered. They were all throwing praise around, making sure everyone knew that they were part of the reason that they were still alive, still together.

Everyone except Lance, anyway. He was standing off to the side, away from the group, but still close enough to hear everything they were saying.

“Man, your timing was perfect, Pidge!” Hunk said. “If you had opened the hangar doors any later, we would’ve been toast.”

“Nah, that was nothing,” she replied. “You and Shiro were the real lifesavers in there. You really came through with distracting the Galra to keep them away from me.”

Shiro chuckled. “I don’t know, if Keith wasn’t keeping the ships outside away from the base, we all would’ve been goners.” They all agreed and kept talking.

Lance, who seemed to have been completely forgotten at this point, had finally had enough. It wasn’t enough that he had saved Keith’s ass out there more times than he could count, or that he took out nearly a third of the fleet that had been trying to get inside to back up the other Galra and take out Pidge, Hunk, and Shiro. It wasn’t enough that Blue had taken more damage than any of the other lions, that she had to be carried by Shiro and Hunk in their lions on the way back because she was too damaged to fly herself. They had to ignore Lance’s hard work, all the close calls he had saving their asses, even though he was right out there with Keith.

“Yeah, because it was all up to Keith out there,” Lance snapped. The others looked at him, surprised at the anger in his voice.

“Somebody had to keep the Galra away from the others,” Keith retorted.

“And who was it that was saving your ass when you didn’t notice the Galra that were coming up right behind you?” Keith opened his mouth, ready to retort, but Lance cut him off. He knew he was being harsh, that they were all wound up from that mission, but he was just so angry. “Did you even notice that I took out almost a third of their fleet when you were being too reckless to see that they were slipping past you? I bet you didn’t care about all those close calls that Blue and I took when we were saving your ass.”

“Where the hell is this coming from, Lance?” Shiro asked, confused as to why their normally level-headed Blue Paladin was so upset.

Lance balled his hands into fists to stop their shaking. “I just don’t understand why you’re all ignoring everything I did out there!” He was shouting now, and he could feel tears pricking at the corners of his eyes, but he kept going. “You all get praised, telling each other how great you did out there, and you completely forget about me. If I had messed up just a little bit out there, I could have gotten myself killed! But do any of you care? No, why would you? I’m just the seventh wheel. I’m replaceable. You could get rid of me at any point, and what difference would it make?” Blue’s angry rumbles vibrated in his head, telling him that what he was saying was wrong. He was her pilot, and no one could replace him. He ignored her, feeling a spark of guilt that he quickly snuffed out.

“Lance, you know that’s not true,” Hunk said. Lance could see the guilt evident in his best friend’s eyes. He reached out toward the Blue Paladin, and Lance stepped away. Tears were streaming down his face now, and he couldn’t stop the shaking reverberating throughout his entire body.

“Then tell me why. Why do you ignore everything I do? Why is it that you criticize every wrong thing I do, and then completely ignore everything I do right?” His voice wasn’t even angry anymore, and the other paladins felt guilty at the sadness in his words. How long had he felt this way? How had they allowed it to go this far?

Lance was finding that it was getting harder to breathe. He raised a shaky hand in an attempt to wipe the tears still falling from his eyes, but he stopped when the others began to move toward him. _No. No no nononono._ He needed space. He needed to be away from them. He did not want to be near them.

He turned away and ran, his weak legs trembling in protest. He just wanted to lay down, curl into a ball, and let this pass. Before he could make it to his room where he could do just that, however, his legs gave out beneath him, and he collapsed to the floor in the hallway. He couldn’t get enough air into his lungs, and every failed breath increased the number of black dots in his vision.

He ignored the footsteps coming closer to him, instead curling into a ball on the floor as he desperately tried to get enough air. He felt someone pull him up, and he could barely make out a shock of white hair in front of him through his blurred vision. He weakly protested as someone grabbed his hand and pulled it to their chest.

“I need you to try and breathe with me, Lance. Can you do that?” That was Shiro’s voice. He tried to nod, and he felt Shiro breathe a bit heavier so that Lance could distinguish each breath easier. He tried to match his own breaths to the rise and fall of his leader’s chest, starting to hyperventilate more when he failed to do so. Shiro noticed this.

“It’s okay, Lance. You’re doing great. Just go slow. Try and breathe with me. It’s okay if it takes a few minutes. You can do it. You’re doing better already.” Lance relaxed a bit at the calm tone of his voice, and found it just a bit easier to take in some air. It still wasn’t enough, though, and the black dots weren’t leaving his vision.

After a few minutes, Lance found that he could breathe normally again. He was still a bit shaky, but his vision was normal, and he could breathe.

“Are you back with me, Lance?” Shiro asked. He nodded, and their leader breathed a sigh of relief. “Is it okay to give you a hug?” He nodded again, and he was brought into a warm embrace. He leaned into it, and he felt sluggish as his head dropped against Shiro’s shoulder.

Shiro pulled away after a minute, and Lance reluctantly did the same. He was exhausted, and he had found himself nodding off in the warm embrace. Shiro sighed. “We’ve got a lot to talk about, but that can wait until tomorrow. I think you need some sleep.” Lance sighed in agreement, and Shiro helped him up. “Do you want to go to your room?”

“No, I’d rather not be alone.” Lance hated how weak his voice sounded.

“Well, I think the others went to the lounge. Will you be okay to be with everyone in there?” Lance hesitated before nodding. Now that he wasn’t upset, he felt embarrassed by his breakdown, but he felt guilty for snapping at his team, his family, more than anything. He wanted to apologize, and he wanted to be with everyone.

Shiro lead the way to the lounge, Lance tiredly stumbling behind. When they arrived, Lance found he was nervous about how his team would receive him. They would probably be upset with him for snapping like that, for blaming them for his own insecurities.

He was surprised, however, to see relief and guilt evident on all their faces. He opened his mouth, about to apologize, when his teammates beat him to it.

“Listen, we’re really sorry about that, Lance,” Keith said, surprising the blue paladin. “You did a lot for us out there, you do a lot for us, and it’s wrong of us to just leave you hanging like that.”

“Honestly, if it wasn’t for you, we’d be toast,” Pidge agreed. “We can always count on you to save our asses when we need it, and we tend to take that for granted.” Shiro grunted, showing his disapproval of Pidge’s word choice.

“Yeah, and who else would be the perfect person to taste test all my food?” Hunk added, making the others chuckle.

Lance smiled. “Aww, you guys are gonna make me cry. Bring it in.” He put his arms out, gesturing for the others to get in on a group hug. They all obliged, Keith doing so hesitantly.

They still had a lot to talk about and work through, but that could wait. What they really needed at the moment was some team bonding time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is definitely not my best work, but I tried. I honestly sat on this for so long before deciding to just go ahead and post it. Hopefully my writing will get better as I continue on, but we'll see.


	2. Isolation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance hoped that with Shiro's return, the team dynamics would return to normal. This isn't the case however, and he finds himself falling into his feelings of homesickness. The team realizes this and is determined to help him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here I am, once again projecting on to my boy. I'm actually really happy with this one, and I havE FEELINGS ABOUT THE CLIPS FROM SEASON 4!! Don't read if you don't want spoilers, because I did include one whole scene from those clips (it's the one with Lance obvs).

Lance had hoped that getting Shiro back would bring the team closer again. When he was gone, they had each taken to their own forms of coping. Keith searched nonstop for Shiro, Pidge was immersed in searching for her brother and father, Hunk spent a lot of time doing maintenance on Yellow, and Allura and Coran were occupied with taking out the remains of the Galra empire. Lance didn’t really fit into their activities very well. He enjoyed going on diplomatic missions with Hunk, and occasionally Allura, but most of the time he was just bored.

When they finally found Shiro, Lance was relieved. They would be a team again. They would train together, eat together, and be a space family again. And while they did still train and eat together, that was really the extent of what they did together. Hunk went on a lot of diplomatic missions with Allura, Coran maintained the castle, Pidge had left to find her family, Keith was training with the Blade of Marmora, and Shiro trained a lot by himself. Lance once again didn’t fit in well.

He often found himself wandering the castle, getting lost in his thoughts. It started with him just trying to think of something to do, but then that turned into thinking about what the rest of the team was doing, and how much progress they were making against the Galra empire. From there, he thought about his family. His real family, back home on Earth. It had been so long since he had seen them, and he had subconsciously tried to think about them as little as possible. And it had been easy, when he had things to do to distract him. But when he simply wandered, letting his thoughts run wherever they wished to go, his family often came to the forefront of his mind.

With these thoughts of his family came the inevitable homesickness. Another thing he had ignored. But really all he wanted was to go home. The more these thoughts persisted, the more down he felt. Even the rest of the team began noticing eventually.

It started with Hunk. As his best friend, it only made sense that he would be the first to notice the change in Lance’s mood. He had first noticed at dinner one night, when Lance was just staring at his food, pushing it around his plate with his fork. When Hunk brought this up, Lance just smiled and said he was tired. And it wasn’t a lie. He was tired. He was always tired, always drained of energy recently. He found that with this loss of energy came a loss of appetite as well.

Next was Keith. When Hunk had brought up Lance’s uncharacteristic actions at dinner, Keith thought maybe he just needed a boost of energy. So he asked the former blue paladin to train with him. Lance accepted, simply wanting something to keep him occupied. He had missed the little time he and the new black paladin had spent together before Shiro’s most recent disappearance, and he wasn’t about to turn an offer from his rival down. But Keith knew something was off when Lance wasn’t rising to his taunts during their session, and when he wasn’t putting much effort into his shots. He was their sharpshooter. He never missed a shot, but he had missed plenty in this session while they fought the gladiator. He mentioned it to Lance, who simply replied with a chuckle, “Just not feeling up to it today, I guess.”

Then it was Shiro. Keith had gone to him for his concerns about Lance, so Shiro tried talking to the new red paladin. “Has something been on your mind recently?” he asked.

“What do you mean?” Lance replied, his features etched with confusion.

“Well, you’ve seemed a bit distant as of late, and we’ve been worried about you. If something’s bothering you, you can always talk to any of us. We’re a team, and we’re here to help if anything’s wrong.”

Lance looked surprised for a moment before smiling. “Yeah, I know. It’s nothing. If there ends up being anything I need to talk about, you’ll be the first person I go to.” Feeling satisfied with that answer, Shiro returned Lance’s smile before leaving.

Lance sighed. He knew he’d have to talk to the team eventually, but he just wasn’t sure he was ready yet. Besides, it wasn’t that bad. He was just a bit homesick and lonely. It wasn’t anything he couldn’t deal with.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts before turning to go to Pidge’s room. The green paladin had finally figured out a way to hook up the Mercury Gameflux II they bought at the space mall, but neither of them had taken the time to actually play it yet. He was hoping to find her in her room so the two of them could finally play the game, but when he arrived, he found it empty. Nevertheless, he sighed and entered the room, turning the system on as he sat down on the floor.

He waited patiently as the system booted up and the starting screen for Killbot Phantasm I came up. He pressed start to play, throwing him immediately into a fight. He played for a couple hours before the door opened behind him. He turned to face Pidge as she entered her room.

“Oh, hey Pidge,” he said, moving to turn off the game. “Sorry, I probably should’ve asked before hanging out in your room like that.”

“Nah, it’s cool,” she replied, plopping down on her bed. “You’re welcome to come play in here anytime. You helped buy it, after all.”

Lance stood up, stretching his arms above his head as he yawned. “Well, I should get going to bed. Good night, Pidgeon.” He ruffled her hair, chuckling as she grumbled and swatted his hand away.

“Wait, Lance.” He stopped at the door, turning to face her. “Are you okay? You’ve seemed really...different lately.” He raised a brow to show his confusion, though from his earlier conversation with Shiro, he could guess as to what she meant. “You’ve been a lot more quiet and reserved. I know I may not always act the nicest toward you, and I could open up a little more to you, but the same goes for you. I’m here to talk if you want to. You’re like a brother to me, and I know we’re not actually siblings, but Matt and I used to talk a lot, and I miss that, and if you want to talk then I’d love to. Of course you don’t have to, but - ”

Lance laughed, interrupting Pidge. “You’re rambling,” he said, chuckling a bit more at Pidge’s blush. “But thanks. And don’t worry, everything’s fine. I’ve just been tired. If there’s anything at all I ever want to talk with someone about, I promise I’ll talk to you.” Pidge looked unsure of his words as Lance yawned again. “In the meantime, I’m going to go hit the hay and get some sleep. You should get some sleep, too.”

“I will,” Pidge replied, smiling. “And maybe we can play this game together soon.”

Lance smiled back, excited at the thought of the two paladins finally playing the game together. “Sounds good.” He waved good night to Pidge before heading to his own room to go to bed.

The next morning, Pidge took her concerns to the Alteans on the ship. Allura and Coran had noticed the change in Lance’s demeanor, but they hadn’t thought much of it, thinking it was nothing out of the ordinary for humans. Nonetheless, they became determined to figure out a way to help the paladin. He had been very distant from the team, seeming to isolate himself, and they all missed his presence.

They searched the castle for him, eventually finding him in Pidge’s room again, playing the game he had bought with Pidge. He was wearing the Altean robes they had given him, and his posture was slightly hunched as he fought the monster in the game with much vigor.

They thought hard for a moment about what to say, before they remembered an Earth drink Hunk had told them about. “Lance, could you assist us for a moment?” Coran asked, peeking through the door with Allura.

“Not now!” Lance shouted, jamming on the buttons of the controller as he struggled to defeat the monster.

The Alteans waited patiently as the monster killed Lance’s character in the game. As the former blue paladin let out a groan and hung his head, Allura spoke up. “We were wondering if you could possibly assist us in getting a milkshake.”

“We tried to negotiate some on our own, but we’ve run into a bit of difficulty with Kaltenecker,” Coran stated. Coran remembered their recent attempt at getting milkshakes from the cow, and though it was just an excuse to try and help their friend, he was quite excited to try these milkshakes they had heard so much about.

Lance stood from his position on the floor, groaning as he exited the green paladin’s room. “Alright, let’s go.” He walked past the two Alteans, not noticing as they shared a look of triumph and a small fist pump in getting him out of the room. It did not slip past them, however, that his shoulders were slightly hunched and he seemed almost dejected.

Once they reached the area where Kaltenecker was held, a room that projected a hologram of what was currently an open plain from Earth with a small stable-like room in the center where she slept, Lance took a seat next to the cow. “Well, first off, Kaltenecker is a girl,” he informed them.

“Oh, I see,” Allura replied, feeling guilty for her assumption of the cow’s gender.

“Apologies, madame,” Coran said, bowing to the cow.

Lance held back his chuckle at the gesture, not able to keep the smile off his face. “Right. And she’s a cow. So she can’t understand you.” He smirked a bit, finding the situation slightly hysterical.

“Okay, communication issues.”

Lance continued, shaking his head a bit in his amusement. “Also, she doesn’t make milkshakes. She has to be milked.” He dropped the smirk on his face, attempting to look serious even though he knew the reactions from the Alteans were going to be hilarious when they found out what it meant to milk a cow. “Let me show you.” He grabbed the bucket sitting next to him and put it underneath Kaltenecker’s udder, letting his sleeves fall to his elbows before thrusting his arms underneath Kaltenecker and proceeding to milk her.

He glanced over to the Alteans to see their reactions, nearly breaking his serious composure at the horrified looks on their faces. Kaltenecker let out a satisfactory “Moo!” as Lance proceeded in milking her. Once he had filled the bucket with her milk, Lance grabbed a couple cups sitting nearby and filled them with the thick liquid. He offered the cups to the Alteans, who still looked shell-shocked. “It’s so thick,” he said, a satisfactory smirk on his face. “It’s almost like a milkshake right now.”

He held back his laughter as the Alteans made their retreat from the room, slightly surprised that they would go so far as to immediately leave. Leaning against Kaltenecker, finding the reactions of the two absent companions hilarious, he spoke to the cow. “It’s not your fault, Kaltenecker. You’re a beautiful girl, and this is very natural.” He took a swig from one of the glasses of milk.

Once he had downed a glass, smile still on his face, he realized he felt lighter. Having worked on a farm at one time, milking Kaltenecker had been nostalgic. Even if only for a moment, it was almost as if he was back at home, working on that farm, thinking about what his mamá would be making for dinner. The memory brought back his earlier feelings of homesickness, but not with the slight bitterness that had come with them previously. He felt lighter, relieved almost.

He lifted the second glass of milk to his lips, pausing before he could take a drink as he realized what the Alteans had done. He sighed, letting a small chuckle slip out of his lips. He sat the glass of milk down, gave Kaltenecker a pat, and left the room to seek out the two companions. He didn’t have to go far, however, as they were waiting for him just outside the room.

He smiled at them. It wasn’t one of his cocky smirks or joking smiles, but a genuine smile that showed his gratitude. “Thanks,” he said.

“For what?” Allura asked, confused by his show of gratitude. It hit her after a moment, when she realized that he understood what they had been trying to do. She returned his smile, though a bit sheepishly. “Oh, right. Yes, well, the team has been worried about you as of late. You’ve been more distant, and it just isn’t like you. Your absence has thrown off the team’s dynamic, and it just isn’t the same without you there to make jokes and keep the team’s attitudes up.”

Lance blinked, surprised by her words. He knew the team had been worried about him, but he hadn’t realized how distant he had really become. He hadn’t meant to; in fact, he had wanted to do the opposite and get closer to the team. In trying to give each of them their own space, however, he had achieved the opposite effect and had instead isolated himself. The sudden realization sparked something within him, and he took off to go find the former black paladin.

“Where are you going, my boy?” Coran shouted after him.

“To find Shiro. I promised I’d talk to him about something.” Coran looked at Allura, the two sharing a look of exasperation before sighing and sharing a smile. They still had much to learn about their Earth companions, but they knew they’d be okay. They were family now, and family looked after each other.


	3. Author's Note

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the very long absence!!

Hello!

I am so sorry for not touching this in like almost a year, but I promise I didn't forget about it. I also said something on my Tumblr about a year ago about me working on a super long, chaptered Langst/Shklance fic and I just want to say that I honestly forgot about that, but then I remembered it today and started working on it again, and I'm pumped for it once again, so I will be posting the first chapter for that very soon! I haven't worked out an overarching plot for that, and I honestly don't know if it's really going to have like a super in depth plot like I usually like to do for longer things, or if it's just going to be sort of whatever and it'll go where it goes. I want to get more active on here, which is hard to do when you're going to school full-time with two part-time jobs, but I want to try to do more. I miss writing for me, and I haven't had the time to really do it since I graduated high school, so I really want to push myself to make more time for it.

I don't really have any one-shots planned for this collection right now, but I would like to post more in the future, so feel free to send me some requests!!

My tumblr is @leighcat, and my twitter is @leighcatbts if you'd like to interact with me on there. I've recently become much more active on twitter, so feel free to follow me!! Or don't. It's mostly just me complaining about random things and hyping up BTS so you probably wouldn't really be that interested lol


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